Ridership is one thing; capacity quite another. In choosing the former over the latter, Metrolinx and the TTC have done what their political masters wanted. But the price will be hobbled transit throughout the GTA for decades to come.

Instead of building the downtown relief line, which would increase the number of passengers the subway system can carry, we prefer to build new suburban lines that will increase the number of passengers, but not the system’s ability to carry them.

Though routinely overlooked, the distinction is crucial.

Rather than expanding where demand exists, Metrolinx and the TTC are moving into low-density communities that will require even greater public subsidies than heavily-used downtown lines.

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First proposed in 1910, the downtown relief line would extend northeast from Union Station up to Danforth Ave. at Pape or thereabouts. It would lighten the load on the Bloor-Danforth subway and the Yonge line south of Bloor.

Extending the Yonge/University line north, or the Bloor/Danforth line east and/or west will make the subway accessible to more people, but doesn’t add more trains to the system.

“It’s folly to focus on expansion not consolidation,” argues Murtaza Haider, associate dean of research and graduate programs at Ryerson’s Ted Rogers School of Management. “Metrolinx and the TTC are out trying to get more passengers, but can’t deal with what they already have. We spend money on good-looking streetcars not signaling and track improvements. We should address existing needs before building new lines few will use.”

No one who uses transit anywhere in the GTA would disagree with that. Service is hampered by 60-year-old equipment that breaks down on a daily if not hourly basis. Poor planning also means limited connectivity among lines.

But as Haider also points out, “Take away the transit system and we’d collapse in a day.”

We learned the truth of that last week when a torrential downpour paralyzed public transit in Toronto and beyond.

Expansion, of course, is an effective way for the Rob Fords and Kathleen Wynnes of the world to show how much they love us, especially as elections loom.

Yet despite what they say, the key to successful transit is density. Even downtown Toronto doesn’t approach the densities of Hong Kong, Manhattan, Paris and London, but in suburbs such as Vaughan, Richmond Hill and Markham, let alone Scarborough, the numbers are hopelessly low. Already every ride on the Sheppard line costs the TTC more than one on Yonge because there are fewer paying customers.

Transit is politics, however, in Toronto more so than ever. The optics of giving more to downtowners at the expense of long-suffering Scarborough residents makes the relief line problematic, if not impossible.

And what about the long promised and badly needed Queens Quay LRT line? It would connect new nearly completed waterfront neighbourhoods including those in the West Don Lands to the inner core. It, too, seems to have dropped out of contention as we rush to provide service to non-existent passengers.

“The downtown relief line is the quintessential piece of the transit puzzle,” Haider insists. “If you have $1 billion to spend, why not spend it on the relief line?”

Good question. And one that remains unanswered so far. But as the city continues to let opportunities slip by, chances of Toronto getting the transit it desperately needs recede further into the distance.

Scarborough extension or downtown relief line? Ridership or capacity? The answers are clear, though that will have little effect on the decisions we make. As is so often the case, the harder the choice, the easier the illusion.